Less than 30 days - 61 Hours

The price changed quickly on the new Reacher novel, 61 Hours. and I wonder how much of it was people being annoyed at the pricing. As Tobias Buckell would say, that’s economics. They changed the price, and when it appeared on the Amazon home page today, I bought the Kindle Edition.

I’ve been thinking about this ever since my communications with Tobias, and I have changed my mind a little in that Amazon and publishers can charge what they want. However I’ll “vote” with my wallet, and let them know that I don’t think that an ebook is worth a $2 or less discount from the hardback. I realize they want to capitalize early on some of the cost of building the book, just like movies go to the theater first, and then elsewhere.

That’s OK, and if they want to delay ebooks, they live with the annoyance of fans, many of whom might just wait a few months for the paperback/ebook release. I guess publishers need to determine what business model works, and what works best. Personally I think if they’re going to spend on advertising/publicity, they ought to just throw the ebook out there, for $4 less in terms of where I’d value it, print less hardbacks, and cash in the short period of time.